The Drusilla Thorne Mysteries

Yes, I have a new book out. It's the first in the Zombies Of The Bay Area series.
Billionaire Marcus Stephens is facing the end of the world, the destruction of humanity...zombies. He's never let problems stop him in the past. He's not about to start now.
I got the idea for this when my husband and daughter started watching The Walking Dead, and I looked at how they used the setting of greater Atlanta. A couple of times I thought, Yeah, that wouldn't happen around here.
So I … [Read more...]

One of the things that a lot of people ask me, and apparently every other writer ever, is "Where do you get your ideas?" And the simple answer really, really is "They're all around us everywhere." I sometimes get ideas from newspaper articles about crimes, but those are just jumping off points: if I wanted to do true crime, those newspaper articles would become much more important, and I'd have a lot more research to do. Mostly I'm interested in why people hurt one another in the first … [Read more...]

When I was in high school (post-stone tablets, pre-iPad tablets), there was a girl whose nickname was "The Queen of the Snow." I just thought she liked skiing a lot.
When I was at Stanford, if you wanted drugs, it wasn't hard to find some. I even knew a couple of dealers, none of whom was ever worried about getting arrested. After all, they were white guys who were at Stanford. I also knew a girl whose brother Fedexed her coke. (I assume Fedex has gotten their drug sniffing paraphernalia act … [Read more...]

(This is Part Two. If you need to recap, Part One is here.)
Before Season Five of Game of Thrones started, my husband and I rewatched the first four seasons with our daughter. She's older than I was when I watched "I, Claudius," and she's much more adult and vocal about gender, sexuality, and women's roles than I was before the age of 40, so I was okay with her watching it. My kids are good about getting up and walking out of the room when there's something on they don't want to see.
I … [Read more...]

There's been a lot of talk recently about whether Jon Snow really got killed off at the end of Game of Thrones last season. The producers say he's actually dead! The actor's been spotted in Belfast, where the Wall scenes are filmed! His hair...what about his hair?
The answer to the question of whether Jon will be back is actually completely obvious, and I don't need to have secret access to George RR Martin's unpublished drafts of Book whatever-book-it-is (haven't read any), Kit Harington's … [Read more...]

I've done a post like this a couple of times over the past...uh...two decades I've been posting blog entries. (Falls over, cries.) It's been fun to look back to see what I was watching in, say, 1998. And of course, with all the changes in the way we get TV over the past five years, what one person is watching may be completely different than what another person is. In fact, the television available to two people may be completely different.
One reason is: We don't have cable. We haven't had … [Read more...]

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have been all about the running. Running marathons. Running up hills. Running a few times a week.
I was also (less vocally, but with no less dedication) all about the power lifting. Squats! Deadlifts! Bench press! Overhead press! So much fun. Whenever I didn't want to go to the gym, all I'd have to do would be to remember what the end of a workout felt like in my body and off I would go.
I was also always in pain. No, not from the … [Read more...]

My friend Hannah Steenbock and I started a podcast together: The 21st Century Writer podcast. We discuss writing, publishing, self-publishing, and slightly more "woo" topics, such as EFT, affirmations, and hypnosis. We're all about "mindset" at the 21st Century Writer, so if you're interested in joining us, take a listen and let us know what you think! … [Read more...]

(Idea stolen from Marco Arment's page.)
I saw Marco's list of which of the most popular and/or Oscar-winning movies he's seen over the past 14 years. I wondered how I faired using the same list.
I had to rearrange his list somewhat, since I've seen different movies. No warranty expressed or implied with any movie...except one: Philomena is magnificent. A simple story of two people on a quest together. It's beautiful and heartbreaking. Find it.
Key: Seen it, Haven’t seen … [Read more...]

I've used a ton of note-taking apps. I even asked on my other blog a while ago for recommendations for what to use. My friend Nina recommended Evernote and I looked at it. The idea of paying $45 a year to use an application seemed slightly high in this day and age of cheaper and cheaper software.
Eventually, however...I came around to it. And I'm very happy I did.
(Pay the $45. Just do it. Not only do you get more storage and the ability to use Evernote off-line -- which you will need, believe … [Read more...]